Each team must have 4 foreigners who 1 must be U23 but can have up to 6 foreigners but 3 must be U23 & only 4 can take to the field at any one time

Each team can have team squad 32 players(min) - 40 players(max)

History of the 2002 season

After the sour end to their previous season, Geylang United were determined not to let it happen again. SeakPohLeng was appointed manager and the Eagles decided to follow the England system where the manager is the head staff in the coaching department.

This move clearly demoted Jang Jung to an assistant to MrSeak despite having the title of head coach of the team, as now, he has to listen to MrSeak.

Another club with coaching changes was Home United as they lost their coach Robert Alberts after he decided to embark on a new job as Director of Football with South Korea National Team. It was at this point the Protectors make the mistake of the season.

The Protectors must have been blinded by the effect young rookie coaches had on the other teams and embark on getting one themselves with Jason Withe, who was just started his coaching career, recruited as coach.

It was a mistake, as shown when the season progress, for he clearly could not handled the team, as he aliened his players not only with his coaching methods but also unsuitable tactics and formation.

Therefore, before the start of the 2002 season, the two clubs that had won the S-league and Singapore Cup of the previous campaign have new men at the helm.

The Warriors, who had for the first time ever gone without a trophy, last year, underwent a total revamp of the team with many veterans who lead the club for the last several years released.

Out went NazriNasir, Tan Kim Leng, AzharSalleh, MohairudynRomly and YunosSamad to Tampines Rovers with others like FadzuhasnyJuraimi to TanjongPagar United, Rafi Ali to Gombak United, DalisSupait to Woodlands Wellington and ShahriRahim to Geylang United.

In return, players like JeykanthJeyapal, Jerry Bartholomeusz, V.Selvaraj and Winston Yap were recruited to strengthen the Warriors backline and midfield, which had been the most suspect during last season campaign.

BallamodouConde who was so impressive with Gombak United, despite the terrible season the Bulls had experienced, was brought in as the Bulls could no longer afford to keep him with their financial difficulties.

The most impressive Warriors of the season though was new recruit Thai midfielder TherdsakChaiman, who was brought in on loan from Thai club BEC TeroSasana.

TherdsakChaiman was already a member of the Thai National team and had won MVP in the Thai league but his name still have not spread as far in ASEAN as others like TawanSripan or KiatisukSenamuang.

It was to change by the time the league ended.

The main beneficence of the Warriors revamp was the Stags.

With five ex-Warriors players included in the Stags squad now, they were set to enjoy their best season to date with a trophy at the end of the season.

The Stags had always been one of the big spenders in the S-league and had long hoped for a trophy to end their current barren spell since their S-league debut in 1996.

Their chairman Teo Hock Seng, who had became Chairman of the club back in mid 2000, was even backing that with his own money.

At the same time with the Stags rebuilding, Woodlands Wellington was also rebuilding with the aid of sponsor SembCrop Power & Gas.

The big-time sponsor had taken up the job of working with the Northern-based club hand in hand to revamp the entire club structure. The money and management experiences injected by the sponsor will have an immediate positive effect on the club.

After the past few seasons of finishing in the bottom half of the table, the club returned back up to the top half with a fifth-placed finish.

A name change also happened as MarineCastle became Sengkang Marines with them hoping to get closer to their fanbase.

If there was ever a fengshui move that a fengshui master would recommend, it was such a move as it brought about a change of luck with the Dolphins enjoying their best season to date in the S-league and Singapore Cup although it was more a case of them taking advantage ofa new ruling implemented this season.

The ruling meant a club could have up to six foreigners provided three were Under-23 but only four could take to the field at any one time.

It was created as a result of the Foreign Talent Scheme (FTS) which the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) was setting up and FAS felt the ruling will provide an incentive for clubs to search for younger foreigners which FAS could then take a look at as the old ruling which one of the four foreignersmust be Under-23 was not popular.

SengkangPunggol took full advantage as one of the few club to fill up all six foreign slots as a result of their chairman links with his ties back in England which he used to recruit a number of young Englishman and which coach Tervor Morgan used to full effect with the well-known English long ball game .

More on that later as the S-league season begun and the league opening schedule would not have dealt a more funny twist with Eagles facing against Protectors at Bedok.

Just a mere four months after the controversial Singapore Cup final when the Big Two had clashed, the Eagles wanted to rewrite that wrong. With new players in place of those players who had rebelled, the Eagles defeated Protectors 3-0.

The Champions therefore had make a successful start to their defend of their title but by the end of the first Series, the Eagles had already endure three defeats in eleven matches and were falling behind the relentless pace the Warriors were setting.

The Warriors had won nine of their eleven opening matches while drawing the other two in the first Series.

The other Big team, Protectors, after their opening defeat to the Eagles, never recovered with issues involving coach Jason Withe coaching, unsuitable tactics and formations hampering them.

It was therefore clear to fans that SAFFC was the most consistent among the Big Three and was pulling away from Geylang United and Home United with every match played.

With the title seeming lost even before the halfway stage, the Big Two begun looking at next season campaign and changes were not far away.

At Home United, coach Jason Withe was enduring a difficult time with the team as his 4-4-2 formation was clearly not working and the team was not responding well to it.

The Protectors did not have a single left-sided player in the entire squad so Peres De Oliveira was asked to fill in there. It was a strange decision as the Brazilian was the team most creative spark and his best position was in the centre or playing behind the front man.

Without any player in the middle that had the extra spark the Protectors needed to open up defences, their attack suffered and it showed for the EgmarGonclaves and IndraSahdah attack that scored an astonishing 50 goals the season before were now struggling for goals.

The worst crime though was he never knew his best starting eleven as he committed the grave error of continuing to chop and change in the hope of finding those who could respond but it only meant the team never gels to play well as a unit.

It was therefore a matter of time before the Home United management lost faith in their new coach and it was not totally unexpected when he was sacked in mid-season.

Another Englishman Steve Darby was his replacement. The new coach came with more experiences alongside an impressive resume in Asia of having won silverwares with Johore in the M-league and with the Vietnam women team in the SEA Games.

For the Eagles side, it was a matter of whom to listen to as there were a leadership crisis in the club.

There were confusions as coach Jang Jung was the head in training while in matches, manager SeakPohLeng took over as in the English system.

With both possibility having different views on the same matters, players were confused on whose instructions to follow in the team with two heads now in the club, the manager (SeakPohLeng) and the coach (Jang Jung).

The old organized and disciplined Eagles team was lost.

With the other Big Two out of the hunt, SAFFC had its easy in the second Series onwards and started pulling away even further from them.

The striking partnership of TherdsakChaiman playing behind MirkoGrabovac was simply unstoppable with both scoring at will. Both were to finish as the club top two scorers.

Other teams in the S-league could only watch as the raging Warriors had it all their own way with no team matching them.

The Singapore Cup was a different matter though as the quarter-final stages of the Cup competition started after the group stages was taken care of.

The league leader, SAFFC, was knocked out by Jurong 2-1. It was a terrible defeat for the Warriors as they had been near invincible at ChoaChu Kang Stadium until that point.

However, Jurong had long proven themselves as a Cup specialist over the years with the abilities of upsetting bigger and stronger clubs and in the S-league this season, there was no bigger name than SAFFC. It was surely the upset of the quarter-final.

But it happen on a night of upsets as Home United, already enduring a difficult time in the league, wanted to give themselves breathing space in the defence of the Singapore Cup but they were in for a shock of a lifetime when they visited Sengkang Marines at Hougang Stadium.

At Hougang, the Dolphins home ground, it was fast becoming a fortress for the home side, that even the raging Warriors had a hard time breaching.

Under their coach Trevor Morgan, the Dolphins were responding well to the tag of underdog and his motivating methods as well as the already mentioned English long ball game and even with them in the bottom half of the table, almost no top team wished to play against the Dolphins.

Everybody knew what was coming but found it impossible to stop the Dolphins as it was effective, especially with one of the best long ball specialist and crosser Steven Tan in their rank, even if it was not pretty.

The Dolphins never allowed the defending Singapore Cup champions the chance to settle in the match with their pressing tactics and physical approach to the game. The Protectors were rattled and unable to offer any response.

It was therefore no surprise the Protectors were to break down under the Dolphins relenting pressure.

The goal came after a cross from the Dolphins left was not clear far enough away from the Protectors box and it bounced nicely to the on-rushing Steven Tan, who had cut in from the Dolphins right, and he let fly with a shot that gave the Protectors keeper no chance to save it. It was a beauty but the significant of the goal matter more to the Dolphins as they were through to the semi-final of a Cup competition for the first time in their history.

A third upset nearly evolved when the Jaguars, no longer the force they were back in their glory years, took a three goals lead over the Stags at Queenstown Stadium.

Chow Kwai Lam who had been appointed in mid season, after another typical Stags poor start saw the end to the previous coach, must have seen his end as well.

Three goals behind, the Stags staged what must ranked as one of the best fightback of their lives as they got the score back to 3-3 with three goals in the last 20 minutes of the match.

The Jaguars morale was totally destroyed with that comeback and they could not find the needed energy to match the Stags in extra time. However, the Stags were also drained out by the comeback and in extra-time, they were unable to come out with the winner.

A P.K shootout was required to decide the team who advance to semi-final and it was the Stags as they came out 4-3 winner.

For the final quarter-final match, it was never an upset as it went as predicted with the Eagles thrashing the Stallions 4-1 at Bedok.

Despite being knocked out of the Singapore Cup in the quarter-final stage, the Warriors never lost their head in the league and kept up the pace in the title race.

With the Warriors only losing one match in the league all season, it was no surprise the title was wrapped up with five matches left to spare.

It was the Warriors fourth title in six seasons and the second title won by their coach Fandi Ahmad. In the end the title was won with a record 84 points as well as another record of 104 goals scored.

Back to the semi-final of the Singapore Cup, it saw another upset again with Cup specialist Jurong upsetting another of the Big Three, Geylang United, 2-1 at Bedok Stadium.

The Cobras were clearly enjoying their status as the giant-killer of 2002 having knocked out two of the biggest clubs in Singapore.

At Hougang Stadium for the other semi-final, Sengkang Marines fought hard against Tampines Rovers. The Stags were the better team overall throughout the match but could never finish off the Dolphins.Twice the Stags took the lead but twice the Dolphins came back to draw level and finished with a 2-2 draw at full-time.

Trevor Morgan and his players clearly wanted to reach the Singapore Cup Final and were showing the fighting spirits that they had came to be know for and evenin extra-time, there was still no way of separating them as the Dolphins held firm against the Stags attacks

For the second match in a row in the Singapore Cup, a P.K shootout was needed again for the Stags to advance through.

Maybe, it was the extra experience or it was just the Stags year, the Stags won their P.K shootout 5-3 against the Dolphins to book their place in the Singapore Cup Final.

With the semi-final results, the 2002 Singapore Cup Final saw two teams that have yet to win a trophy up to date matched up.

A new club will be added into the list of Singapore Cup champions and 10000 fans will turn out to witness the historic event.

Despite scrapping their way into the final, the Stags were installed as the favourite due to their league position of fourth-place and the fact they have a superior squad compared to the Cobras.

Not that it mind to the Cobras as up to now the role of underdogs had suited them better.

Indeed, it was so in the Singapore Cup final as the Cup specialist Cobras outplayed the Stags for much of the match but lacking the cutting edge bigger clubs enjoyed, the Cobras could not get the opening goal.

They were to pay for it as Stags Australian midfielder George Goutzioulis opened the scoring with four minutes left of the final whistle. It was a terrible blow to the Cobras; not helped further when their player-coach Sundrammoorthy got himself sends off along with Stags midfielder MustaficFahrudin after both got involved in a scuttle.

Not that it mattered as moments later, the Stags lifted their first ever trophy in the professional era.

It was a great joy for Chairman Teo Hock Seng, after waiting nearly three seasons, to see the club he endeared win a trophy.

He had gained a reputation of being a 'Sacker' in the local football scene with him seeming chopping players and coaches non-stop under his charge.

No,w after the constant changes, he could have found the formula for the Stags to take their first step towards building Tampines Rovers back into a force in the S-league like the old days in the 1970s and 1980s.

While it was a great end to the season, the truth must be told it was a mediocre season as the Warriors simply won the league too easily and no teams stood up to match them.

Above all that, there were now evidences to show a gulf between the richer clubs and poorer clubs developing with clubs with cash finishing comfortably above clubs with little or no cash.

The Warriors, Eagles and Protectors had clearly pulled out to be the Big Three of the S-league away from the rest of the league. The top three positions are looking increasing like their domain for despite the Protectors and Eagles enduring a tough season; they still managed to finish with second and third position.

Few clubs with such a tough season like the Big Three would have done that but the Protectors and the Eagles achieved it.